Oh For The Simple Days of Old

In the olden days things were very simple weren’t they? You stuck on your boots, rousted the dog then belted off up the nearest hill and back down again. Then after a night in the pub you did it all again the next day with never any problems, except for the odd toenail disfigurement or some such.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise in your 5^th decade that the old bod starts to exhibit signs of being well, over the hill. I mean here am I, desperate to get out of this closet and fledge, somewhat latterly as an ultra-runner, only to find I’ve run less this year than I have in many a year.

I mean just as I’m starting to recover from my worst running injury ever that’s kept me from building the miles up I now find at least over the last week I’m stricken with a calf pull on the other leg. Still, at least it’s only a pull so it won’t take long to heal hopefully. To help everything along I’ve actually stopped running for a whole week. Well, it was going to be two weeks but that thought was just too hard to bear so a week it will be and it terminates this Friday.

It’s actually not been too bad as I’ve been able to do 150 miles cycling this week and that hasn’t bothered the legs at all and it’s kept my fitness going. So with a bit of luck the rest will rejuvenate the old running bits. The weekend will be the telling point as it looks like mother-in-law duty is imminent. At least that means I get to go for a nice long trot on the North Yorkshire Moors. Mind you that’s where the leg first blew up so hopefully no omen there.

Fingers crossed for some miles next week.

My Dog, Moss

Today my dog gave me one hell of a scare disappearing as she did for well over an hour out in the Ochil’s. She has a bad habit of chasing deer and this time she got herself majorly lost in heavy snow and thick fog.

Being by myself and minus Moss, it was difficult to decide what exactly to do about it. I was in ten minds as to what she might do and so decided to run on home and check she hadn’t got back there somehow. She wasn’t home though so I had no option but to get into full walking gear and launch a one man search mission.

Amazingly, not ten minutes after resuming the search I saw her racing across the hillside. I called her and she changed course, bounded down the hill to me and gave me a huge doggy welcome. I was very, very relieved to find her with the weather closing in again.

Dogs are amazing companions for running.  Thinking back over the dogs I’ve had in my life. They’ve all been completely different from each other but I’ve loved them all just the same.

As a runner, my most consistent running companion was Meg, a collie who lived to the grand old age of 15 and ran with me for 13 of those years before going into retirement. She was the best friend I've ever had and whom I'd known longer than my wife. Ok, she was a pain in the arse at times ( Meg that is) but she ran thousands of miles with me.

We shared a tent and a sleeping bag when she was soaked as we wild camping in winter. She growled at me when I dared to move while she was curled in the foot of the bag and she coveted my food when she’d eaten her own but I think I can honestly say she made me laugh every time I went out with her, with those peculiar little idiosyncratic ways of hers.

When she was old and couldn’t run anymore, despite the fact that she was deaf as a post, with poor eyesight she was still full of beans despite the ravages of a couple of strokes.  I still loved her though and now I cherish the memories I have of times shared with her. It’s a fact though that one day when you put on your running shoes your dog will no longer want go with you and that is the inevitable tragedy of being a dog owner.

Now my four legged companion is Moss, another border collie. A sprightly skinny bundle of energy as all 3 year old collies should be. She could never replace Meg but she follows neatly on from her and the times we have in the hills are every bit as good.

There’s something really nice about a dog running alongside you with paws tick tick ticking along the path and her own breathing just as controlled and rhythmic as my own. Mind you it’s only at the end of the run that she’ll deem to run alongside me. Most of the time she will be bounding across the heather like a thing possessed convinced she can catch the grouse that are flying over her head.

As I write this she’s curled up asleep next to me on the sofa and very soon she’ll start twitching and yipping as she goes into dream land where she’s racing through the hills again.

Coming Back?

It’s been an unbelievably frustrating month with injury meaning my last proper run was on the 1^st February. This time of year is normally so good for a runner. The worst of the winter is passed and spring is not far away. These are days of running without snow, with the blackbirds singing in the tree tops and the only slippy sliding is caused by mud instead of ice.

For me though it’s been a time of feeling down watching other runners and wondering if I’ll ever get back into it again. Amanda, my physio has been urging rest, rest, rest and I have been resting with just the occasional little try out to see if the pain comes back. So far without fail, every time the pain comes back, often after a mile or so and sometimes after only half a mile

Today though it was different, I know walking doesn’t seem to aggravate my leg so I thought I’ll take Moss the dog for a walk up Kinpauch Hill, a nice little top across the road from Blackford that gives a 6m 1100” circuit. I had a brief debate with myself about footwear and the devil in me said go with the fell shoes not the boots.

Of we went and I set a brisk 4mph walking pace to get the breathing going. Hey, I thought, this feels pretty good I could even do the WHW sub 24hr going no faster than this. I felt great forcing the pace up the front of Kinpauch.

On reaching the top I had no pain whatsoever, so, thought I, I wonder what would happen if I broke into a trot? Well nothing happened except I went faster as I jogged toward the boundary fence at the back of Kinpauch. So down the track I went sort of jog/walking to minimise shock to the knee and still no problems.

The last couple of miles are an easy gradient on soft grass and mossy track centre so I jogged the whole of this back down to the road. Amazingly still no problems as I jogged into the village.

So here I’m sitting post run (did I say run) feeling bloody marvellous. I’ve plastered my knee in Deep Freeze to ward of any evils and my knee feels fine.

If Amanda reads this she’ll no doubt be frowning on her rash and impetuous client but I just couldn’t help myself. I’ll be seeing her tomorrow and I’ll get her to give it a thorough appraisal and tell her about my experience today but it really, really feels like I’m coming back.

Frustrations

It’ so frustrating is this injury lark. I’ve not had a proper run now for 10 days. The knee feels a lot better now but it’s still not right. A couple of days ago I tried a run but only got 100 yards and had to pull up with the calf feeling sore. Today I tried again and this time got a mile and a half before the knee made itself felt again forcing me to walk home.

I suppose I’m lucky in a way as this is the first real problem in years but I don’t feel lucky. I’m seeing my yearly average slipping downwards. I’m feeling a bit like when you have a bad cold and you can’t imagine ever feeling better. Illogical as I know I will get better. With the leg problem having dragged on so long I so want it to be alright again. Surely it will soon be and I can get some miles in.

What a strange week at work. It never fails to amaze me that a public company can happily arrange for a colleague and me to turn up on site only for the operator not to turn up to let us in. Thus they end up paying my company £1200 just for the two of us to turn up and eat our sandwiches outside the gate.

Woes and Strifes

There are a couple of things really sickening me off right now, one of them is work and the other is knee trouble.

As far as work is concerned I can’t believe how shabbily we engineers have been treated by the directors. It’s no secret the company’s been right up it financially for a couple of years now but last year it came to light the financial director had been deducting money from our wages for pension contributions but not paying it into our funds and propping the company up instead.

As you would imagine we were furious when we found out. The bloke was very lucky nobody called the police in. Anyway, we’ve now found out he’s been doing it again and the pension fund is several months in arrears. Fortunately we have an investment angel on the scene now so I know the pension will get sorted.

The trouble is the company is for me now tainted and it’s such a shame. I absolutely love the work and I love the people I work with but I’m sick of false promises and subterfuge. So as much as I will be saddened I think me and the company are going to have to part ways. I mean, how can I ever trust them again?

I think I’m going to be a regular viewer of S1Jobs over the coming months but I’ve made myself a promise,  that in six months either things here at my company will be all tickettyboo or I’ll be employed by someone else.

On the running front there’s pain here too. I’ve had a problematic left knee since a sprain back in November.  It doesn’t affect me when I’m actually running but when I’m sitting down relaxing it stiffens up and can get very sore. I had thought it was fading away but I did a hilly 12 miler yesterday and today it is not good at all. Whenever I get up I have to stand there for a minute or so stretching the leg out straight so I can walk properly on it.

Looks like a trip to the physio is on the cards and see if she can lock this stable door having first captured the bolting horse. Hey ho we’ll see.

Bits n Bobs

Made a flying visit to Teesside on mother in law duty this week. I normally hate coming down here but this week I managed to get in a couple of good runs. One of them took me along an old stone flagged pack horse route that traverses the moor between Commondale and Guisborough. 

It’s a fascinating historical path, the flagstones having been laid hundreds of years ago by ancient monks as a means of getting there provisions delivered. Many, many feet have travelled that way such that the stones are badly worn and a groove runs all the way along them. Back in the 1980’s the local authority decided it might be a good idea to turn all the stones up the other way onto the unworn side, only to find some thrifty council from hundreds of years ago had already done that and the stones are worn on both sides.

My other run took me past the scene of the last in England execution by flailing. A particularly nasty form of torture involving the victim being tied arms and legs apart and their skin being stripped from the neck down their bodies. Most were dead by the time the waist was reached.  My daughter’s old history teacher now lives in the house where the condemned man ate his last meal. Can you imagine facing that and wanting to eat!!!!

My runs last week were mainly night runs but I’m really getting to enjoy them. The views from the summit of Dumyat are awesome with all the lights of Stirling and swirling illuminated mist round the Wallace Monument.

Mind you on a run that took me by White Muir lochs by Gleneagles I got the fright of my life putting up several hundred pink-footed geese. Some racket their wings mad as they all took off in the pitch dark. I wonder how they find the water again without landing lights.

Signs of Spring

It was classic temperature inversion weather today so on the tops it was a good few degrees warmer than in the valleys. I went with Marguerite and Moss to the picnic site near Glendevon and we did our route by Glen Sherup that takes us over Innerdownie, Whitewhisp Hill, Tarmangie Hill then returns us via Ben Shee and Glensherup Reservoir.

It was the first time this year I’d actually felt the warmth in the sun when we got into bits sheltered from the wind and the birds were singing their little heads off in the trees. Despite the icy ground it definitely had a touch of Spring about the weather today.

Looking down over the Forth Valley though I recon it was freezing down there as we were looking over a sea of thick low cloud looking very picturesque. I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera.